Today we visited various sites around Bel-Terra, such as Bom Futuro. We met with Senõr Feliciano who was jolly as always.

We also visited the town of Bel-Terra which is the home town of Marcio. The town of Bel-Terra has a strong American influence in mainly in its buildings. In the 1940:s the Ford company tried to start a agricultural project in Bel-Terra to support the USA then involved in the second world war. The project didnt go down to well, but the American presence in the town left a lasting impact still visable today. In Bel-Terra we also visited the home of Marcios parents, and before we left the town we also visited a terra preta site that had a lot of ceramic material on the surface. This particular terra preta sight had a very good view overlooking the Tapajos river.

Once again it became obvious how much ceramic material is still out there when we walked through the sites, especially in Belterra were we literary could just bend down and look around a bit and find handfuls of ceramic shards from the pre-colombian times. It is a very big change from Sweden. It is very good for us to be here, both so we get to see the material as it is in the field and not only in the museums collections but also because we get a sense of the context the material belongs to. Seeing the depressions that contained their water, experiencing the weather and walking in the jungle were they walked gives a deeper understanding and triggers a lot of thought about the material.

Today we have some images and stories from an excavation in the jungle near Santaréms university. Kjell, Patrik and Marcío Amaral undertook a smaller survey of the soil’s archaeological material, or rather potential. It was a very interesting experience, Marcío taught us much about the material in the area, and what’s poisonous or dangerous in the jungle. Turns out it’s everything. A few of the picture below show some of the animals we saw during the excavation and university.

We were also asked to hold a smaller talk about us and the project for the archaeological students at the university, which should be fun!

View from the hotel.

From the university in Santarém.

Kjell examining some soil for possible archaeological material.

Patrik examining some soil for possible archaeological material as well.

The bus driver and ticket controller left the bus to buy some beverages. Understandably.

We’re finally here in Santarém again! It took us roughly one year and a flight lasting 42 hours (and 8 stops). Not much has changed since, but the hotel has got some improvements, most noticeable is the gigantic airplane hangar-esque structure that has been erected close to the pool. After asking the staff we learned it’s for musicians gigs and not landing small aircraft.

The days we’ve spent here so far have been hectic, but it’s nice to be back. We’ve so far had the time to visit the university of Santarém and gone on a shorter boat ride on the Amazonas river. Today we’re going to the local shopping center to see a movie with Marcío and his family, and during the following days work with the ceramics from last year’s excavation in the project. Before we tell you about that, enjoy these pictures:

Somewhere on the way to Fortaleza

The brown water to the right is the Amazonas river, the left, blue water is the Tapajós river.

We booked our flight just an hour ago! We’ll depart from Sweden on november 1st and arrive in Santarem a mere 42 hours later. We’ll stay for approxiametely 3 weeks and hopefully get a lot of sun and things to see! Ate logo